Cricket confirmed for the LA28 Games. In what is a huge shot in the arm for cricket, it has become the latest sport to be included in the Olympics.
Cricket, whose only previous foray into the Olympics was way back in 1900 after which it was never a part of the global games, will feature in the 2028 edition of the Olympics that will be held in Los Angeles.
According to news reports, the decision to make cricket a part of the Olympics was finalised on October 16, 2023, when the International Olympic Committee approved the sport along with baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, and squash.
Format of T20 Cricket in 2028 LA Olympics
The event will be held for both men and women and the matches will be played in the T20 format. The 2028 LA Olympics will see six teams in both, men’s and women’s cricket looking to win top honours.
So far the format of the games hasn’t been released but the best way to proceed could be to have round-robin matches among those six sides with the top four at the end of the 15 matches making it to the semifinals. The semifinal winners will then feature in the gold medal match while the losing teams will face off in a bronze medal encounter.
Cricket Schedule in the LA28 Games
The Los Angeles games are expected to be played between July 14, 2028, to July 30, 2028, and cricket can be expected to be played between those two dates. It might last around a week.
Qualification Process for Cricket at the LA28 Games
More information is still awaited on this and there could be various ways in which the six teams participating in the men’s and women’s games could be decided.
The ICC could look at the ICC Team Rankings in T20I cricket on the cut-off date and the top six ranked sides could make it to the Olympics.
The other way of doing this could be using a world event like the T20 World Cup to decide on who makes it through to the Olympics – say the top six sides at the end of the next men’s and women’s T20 World Cup to make it to the LA games.
Another method to decide on the qualification for the Olympics is to have a tournament played between the top few nations with the top six making it through.
How to buy cricket tickets for the LA 2028 games?
We will update that information closer to the start of these games.